The Kensington leasehold resident who faced a demand for a ludicrous £912 sub-letting fee for renting out her flat has had the sum reduced by £360, after contacting Leasehold Knowledge Partnership.

The property manager Blenheims has conceded that Claire Jenkinson should not have been invoiced £360 (inc VAT) for the freeholder’s undefined legal expenses.

It is yet to be established whether Ms Jenkinson should have been charged anything at all.

Troy Court’s right-to-manage company decided to introduce a “licence to sub-let” after undesirable short-term tenants, including prostitutes, moved into the prime block of flats at the entrance to Holland Park.

But no such “licence” is mentioned in the lease, and the Land Tribunal has made numerous rulings last year limiting sub-letting fees to £40 plus VAT where no figure for sub-letting consent is given in the lease.

“I feel about 160 years old after all this,” said Ms Jenkinson. “Blenheims, acting for the RTM, has gone into this feet first and without due thought to the correct legal process or understanding of our leases.

“What makes me more angry is that I only received an invoice detailing these legal firms involved because I repeatedly persisted in asking for one.

“I cannot thank LKP enough for all its guidance and support with this – and just as I was on the brink of caving in and writing out the mighty cheque for £912! “

Julian Harper-Brown, of Blenheims, contacted Leasehold Knowledge Partnership on Friday insisting that “under the terms of the lease at this building a licence to sublet is required and our clients, who are the RTM company, have instructed us to inform lessee’s that they require this licence when they sublet their flat”.

He continued: ”Although we are aware of the fact this has not always been enforced in prior years, the RTM company at the request of the Residents Association have told us as that this is now to be the case.”

The RTM company’s solicitors, Ashfords LLP, were contacted to establish their fees for this licence, which come in at £480 inc VAT.

Blenheims had demanded an additional £360 inc VAT for Taylor Wessing, the freeholder’s solicitors, as well as their own fee per licence of £72 in VAT.

But then it back-tracked. Mr Harper-Brown said:

“However having reviewed the documents there is only an obligation to notify the superior landlord and it is not necessary for their legal team to be involved. Therefore the second set of solicitor’s fees are not relevant in this case.”

It also emerges from Mr Harper-Brown’s statement that Ms Jenkinson could, in fact, use a solicitor of her choice to draft her licence. “Unfortunately she has declined to acknowledge this offer to you,” he added, claiming that LKP’s report was “one-sided and uniformed”.

In fact, if Ms Jenkinson decides to notify the RTM herself that she is sub-letting her flat in accordance with her lease she would save this legal bill as well … and, in short, carry out all the obligations that she has done on the two previous occasions when she had a tenant.

Ms Jenkinson understandably was not tempted to ask a lawyer of her own to attempt to draft a “licence” that she did not think she needed, and which is not provided for in her lease.

Chairman of the RTM company Alan Greenhalgh is now involved and has asked to see Ms Jenkinson’s lease.

“As a reasonably new RTM company we have been involved in getting the finances of the building sorted out, as well as establishing a proper 10-year plan for major works etc,” he explained.

“We were asked by the residents’ association to manage licences to under-let and also licences to alter, as these had been issues that has caused residents a lot of concern.

“However, it is fair to say that given all the other issues we have needed to deal with to benefit residents, the licences to underlet have not been in our top 10 list. The residents’ association asked us to enforce it, so we did. I should add that this is not something that the RTM did on its own back.”

Ms Jenkinson is delighted Troy Court has won the right to manage its own affairs, and appreciates the efforts of the RTM on behalf of all leasehold residents.

She wanted to rent out her flat “by the book”, but correctly suspected that this licence to sub-let – in spite of the eagerness to issue invoices – had not been thought through.

Contact LKP

The leasehold game is weighted against ordinary home-owning leaseholders, who aren’t professional players. LKP was set up to redress the balance, to help you win your disputes or at least avoid disasters.

If you have a leasehold problem, you can email sok@leaseholdknowledge or take a chance on calling 07808 328 230.

MPs don’t like what they see …

Sir Peter Bottomley is to calling for an urgent meeting about leasehold issues with Housing Minister Mark Prisk, following the Leasehold Knowledge Partnerhsip /Campaign against Retirement Leasehold Exploitation conference at Westminster this afternoon. “It is quite clear that pensioners and other leaseholders are facing serious issues and this need to be addressed,” Sir Peter told […]

UPDATE: March 15. The DCLG press office has asked LKP to make clear that the government is considering adding leasehold abuses – not leasehold itself, as we originally reported – to consumer protection laws and that the first sentence of this article has been amended accordingly. Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for the Department […]

Ground rent scandals

This article offers some tips on responding to the government consultation on “tackling unfair practices in the leasehold market”. It gives you links to some of the documents you might want to read and gives an explanation of some of the questions asked in the consultation as well as highlighting some of the issues you […]

Here is a good example of how the sector – that blob of property interests, from builders to offshore investors – view swathes of peoples homes in leasehold England. In 2012 Savills analysed the ground rent market, and did a pretty good job. Under the title, ground rents “An unusual yet attractive investment” the giant […]

So far, ministers are showing no sign of a wobble in criticising housebuilders for fleecing their customers with leasehold houses. “Both the Secretary of State Sajid Javid MP and the Housing Minister Gavin Barwell MP have been looking closely at the issue of leasehold houses and escalating ground rents,” the DCLG tells a leaseholder […]

Grenfell cladding

The Grenfell cladding disaster for private flat owners got another airing last Saturday, this time in the Daily Telegraph. It claims that 143 private blocks have failed the governments fire safety tests involving 20,000 leaseholders. “The Government has said that the building’s owners have a “moral responsibility” to ensure that the bill does not fall […]

The prime minister addressed the Grenfell cladding issue in private blocks at parliamentary questions this afternoon, ‘ruling nothing out’ to get residential freeholders and developers to take responsibility rather than dump costs on leaseholders. She said that Barratt, Legal and General and Taylor Wimpey “are doing the right thing and taking responsibility”. The recognition of […]

When leaseholders unite …

Giving recognition to a residents’ association at the most exclusive apartment block in Canary Wharf posed the sort of “risks that you see with the trade unions”, the First-Tier Tribunal was told last Thursday. The remark was made by the freeholder’s professional witness, chartered surveyor Bruce Maunder Taylor – and was greeted with guffaws […]

Disgraceful …

Sir Peter Bottomley (Conservative, Worthing West) named the leasehold-gameplayer Martin Paine as a “crook” in the Commons yesterday. “We should not have to rely on the chance action of a campaigning charity such as LKP [the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership] or the Campaign Against Retirement Leasehold Exploitation—or a passing Member of Parliament, to get things put […]